Before we start there are a few things we need to clear up about starting a travel blog.

First of all, it’s not hard. Second of all, it doesn’t take long. Third, it is cheap.

The difficult part comes in trying to grow and make money from your travel blog, but there’s a lot of potential to do this successfully, and the rewards are worth the effort.

The truth is that starting a travel blog is actually quite a simple step-by-step process, and there’s no need to get overwhelmed by it all.

1. Pick Your Name and Brand

This is by far the hardest part of starting a travel blog. Picking a name can literally take weeks.

This will be your online identity, and you’ll be telling people all around the world this on a daily basis, so make it something you are happy with.

If you want to start a travel blog about one particular place or thing rather than being the face of your travel blog, then this is easier.

You can be “Food Adventures In New York City”, and everyone will know exactly what your blog is about.

Tips For Picking A Travel Blog Name

Keep it as short and simple as possible. You don’t want to be telling people, “Hey, make sure you check out my blog,

Give your blog longevity. Travelling Jim works well, but “Jim’s 2020 Travels” doesn’t. What if you travel in 2017? Same with “Adventures Of A 21-Year-Old”. That’s not going to work when you’re 22
Don’t limit yourself. If you want to start a travel blog about one particular place or topic, then go for it. These can be very successful in a niche market.

2. Choose a Blogging Host and Platform

A blog’s host is the parent platform you choose to create, manage and support your site. Many hosting providers offer products with various advantages and disadvantages, and you’ll find different travel bloggers swear by different services. To help you narrow down your decision, Forbes Advisor came up with a list of the best blogging platforms to start your site.

If coding is not your strong suit and you would prefer a straightforward route to setting up your blog, see if your hosting provider also offers a feature-rich website builder. Some web hosts, such as GoDaddy, allow you to create your blog by choosing templates and themes, and offer you a suite of tools and features you can simply click and drag to customize pages on your site. Bundling these services with the same provider often leads to cost savings, as well.

Register Your Domain

Most, if not all, hosting websites will allow you to register a domain through its service. You can also purchase a domain through a domain registrar and rent hosting with another company. Either way, this step involves purchasing the URL—the address—of your new blog. Domain registration fees depend on the registrar and the domain name extension (for example .com or .org), but will usually total about $10 to $20 per year

3. Customize Your Blog

Choose a Base Template

A base template is the foundation from which you can build the design of your site. The simplest templates come with a few pre-made pages for you to add content to, a layout for the home page and standard visual styling, such as font faces and color scheme. Complex or industry-specific templates will come with all these features and more, including various layout options and recommendations or requirements for plug-ins to add functionality to the site, such as sign-up forms for newsletters, social media and more.

Most hosting platforms will provide free in-house template options, as well as ones you can purchase. Third-party designers also sell the templates they create on other websites, if you want a more customized (or customizable) look. All templates come with clear installation instructions from the creator.

If you have experience with website building, it is always possible to design your own blog from scratch.

Add Key Pages

You should always have at least three core pages to your blog, even if you title them differently or customize them beyond the typical format for each page. A home page, an “About” page and a “Contact” page can help users familiarize themselves with you and your site. Each of these should be informative without being overwhelming and should provide an easy way for the browsing visitor to get to know you and—more importantly—become interested in you.

You should also add one or two main pages of your own at this point, even if you aren’t ready to fill them with content yet. A photo gallery and the main blog feed are two good examples. Adding these pages early helps you structure your site and develop content toward better search engine rankings.

Once you’ve written your first post … keep on writing. The first few years of travel blogging involve a lot of hard work, especially as you attempt to gain traction in the travel blog world. Assuming monetization and a career are your long-term goals, you’ll need to produce a lot of content before you can slow down

4. Promote Your Site

Sharing your travel blog with friends, family and other travelers you meet is a great way to make new connections and stay in touch with connections you make. Unless you’re writing your travel blog for primarily personal reasons, word of mouth is not enough to grow an audience.

Use Social Media

Social media plays a massive role in travel blogging, and in order to significantly grow, you will almost certainly need to invest time and energy into it sooner or later. Establish a presence, post daily or even more frequently and learn how to utilize each service’s tagging or search features. Instagram is likely the main platform you’ll want to use, but Twitter and Facebook can also be used effectively depending on your audience and the nature of your content.

Learn About SEO

In order to effectively promote your site, you will need to learn about search engine optimization (SEO). Though SEO can be daunting in its scope and importance, the main idea is to rank your site as high as possible in search engine results for keywords related to your content. If someone types “what to wear in Costa Rica” into Google and your blog covers Latin American travel fashion, you want to ensure your post on your experiences in Central America is the first result.

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